Captain America: White – A Preview

But this isn’t going to be a Cap: Rebirth, no, White is going to be a story that focuses on Cap’s time in WWII with Bucky, his starry-eyed sidekick. For those of you whom are not familiar with the work of Loeb and Sale, that’s really where the excitement for this series steps in. I can safely say that, although I love Cap, I’m not excited for this series as a re-examination of Cap’s origins. I’m not excited for this series because of all the sweet explosions and Nazis. I’m excited for this series because of the team taking it on. Loeb and Sale hold a very high-powered partnership that has garnered such contemporary legends as Batman: The Long Halloween, Spider-Man: Blue, Superman For All Seasons; the list goes on. What makes this duo oh-so-dynamic, in my opinion, is not Loeb’s writing, but Sale’s artwork.

Check out how Sale portrays the Hulk. Strange, lurking and textured. His art is unlike anything the world of comics had ever seen before his time.

                                            

I’m not trying to downplay the quality of Loeb as a writer, although some would argue that his presence is becoming less and less commanding with every story he sits down to pen. Loeb is the mind behind Batman: Hush, an amazing run of that series. Some are pointing out that Loeb’s re-team-up with Sale will mark his rebirth as a writer.

As far as the unique color-coding that follows all of the duo’s Marvel books (Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow, Hulk: Gray) go, Captain America: White is obviously no exception. The colors that go along with the titles of the books coincide with the overall feeling of the work itself. For Spidey, blue was chosen to represent the look, his suit and the overwhelming emotion in the story. For Daredevil, yellow was supposed to pay regards to his suit and the sense of cowardice throughout the story. For Hulk, gray reflected his washed-out world and the grayness of his personality that sat somewhere between both black and white. For Captain America, white will… well… what will white do for our hero? Loeb and Sale have yet to divulge this information.

That won’t stop me from guessing. I can’t name, off the top of my head, any emotion that can be closely associated with the color white. Blue and yellow are easy. Gray, forgive me with this, gray is a bit of a gray-area, but still easy enough to hazard a guess. White? I welcome any and all objections to this theory. Perhaps white will stand to represent the way Cap views his world. It’s all a wash, a big white-wash. There are no distinctions between what he thinks and what his government tells him to think. Cap is a patriot. He does what he is told, no questions asked. He views this as a responsibility. But, then again, I could just be way off base with this one… and I probably am.

Release dates? Nope. They’ve given us a time frame of ‘later this year.’ I certainly hope so. According to Tim, the limited promo that was released does not at all represent the way he wants to portray Captain America or Bucky. He labels the work as too cartoony. Apparently Sale wants to give his work a grittiness with this one, so more power to him.

Overall, I’ll be looking forward to the latest from Loeb and Sale… my only issue comes with the fact that they have both stated that there will be only 4 Marvel ‘Color’ books. Does this mean the end of the line for these special hero projects? I hope not.